Giuseppe
Arcimboldo was born in 1527 and grew up during the High Renaissance.
A natural artistic talent landed him a coveted spot as student
to the renowned painter Leonardo Da Vinci. Later Arcimboldo
accepted a position as Royal Painter in the imperial court.
Arcimboldo faithfully served the court for the next 25 years.

Part
of Arcimboldo's duties included designing gala events for the
imperial family. These were flashy affairs with gilded
fountains and rivers of champagne, parades and promenades, flocks of colored birds, music, theater, tons of original artwork, sculptures, and much pageantry. Giuseppe invented many unique special effects for these events such as a enormous
hydro-mechanically powered musical instrument which acted like a modern
color organ. Arcimboldo
called it the "Harpsichord of Color."

Among the services Arcimboldo performed for the Court
included the task of producing an endless series of portraits for
the imperial family and other heads of state. Since there were no copy
or print machines in the sixteenth century every portrait had to be
duplicated by hand. It was during these endless
hours spent in his studio that Arcimboldo invented the
style of painting that would forever separate him from the
other painters of the day.

The
Composite Head.Giuseppe
began to paint tongue-in-cheek portraits of people
with rendered clumps of mammals, fish, vegetables and other
natural objects. Instead of a nose Arcimboldo uses an elephant to form the shape,
instead of an ear, a pelican or alligator, instead of a mouth he uses the shape of a ripe vegetable.
His whimsical "composite head" paintings were the hit of his day, and continue to delight art lovers in every generation. Below are a few of our favorite composite heads...

Earth

The example above is called Earth and
is part of a series of paintings devoted to the elements
of nature. Here you see a head made of a variety of animals
cunningly rendered to achieve amazingly realistic facial
features. How many different animals can you name?

Water

Above
is another painting from Giuseppe's
elemental series of portraits. This one is calledWater.
Here the portrait is made up of sea-creatures of all types.
Notice that the mouth is made from a Shark and a Manta
Ray forms the cheek. How many other aquatic animals can
you identify?

Summer

Above is
a painting from a series based on
the four seasons. This one is called Summer.
In this portrait the gentleman's nose appears to be made
out of a ripe cucumber. Look closely at the man's coat.
Can you see the name of the artist woven into the collar
of his jacket, and the date 1573 embroidered on the shoulder?

Man
in the Vegetables

Arcimboldo
also created a few paintings of what we call "topsy-turvy" or
inverted illusions. The example below is called the Man
in the Vegetables. Right-side up, the painting
looks like a bowl of fresh produce. But when inverted,
it looks like a man's face with mushrooms for lips. Mouse over the image to invert the painting.